The protection of the eyes of a patient who is comatose, semi-comatose, or under anesthesia, or is undergoing medical treatment, is of vital importance. All too often, a patient sustains an eye injury as a result of the various medical devices and instruments used near the head, or due to the dropping of foreign matter onto the eye. The risk of injury is, of course, greatest when the eye is not completely closed. Many methods and devices have been employed in an attempt to protect the eyes during such period of treatment and/or unconsciousness. For example, physicians often employ fabric or gauze eye pads such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,019,516 and 2,572,638. Such pads are held in place upon the eye by ordinary cloth adhesive tape or by an eye mask such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,019,516 and 1,886,725. However, the cotton wool gauze pads are collapsed easily by pressure.
Such conventional methods require several steps in positioning the eye pads in place, and then in taping them or otherwise applying them to the patient. In another method, a small strip of tape is placed horizontally on each of the upper eyelids when closed. This latter method is not wholly satisfactory, however, because it requires an accurate trimming of the strip of tape and placement of the tape strips as close to the lid margins as possible. There is an increased risk of eye injury in attempting such an accurate placement.
A rigid cover device or goggle-like device on the other hand such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,847 has the potential for breaking and injuring the eye. This most likely will occur if the patient is positioned in the face prone position.